


gold rush

by thecryptictaxi



Series: evermore [3]
Category: A Series of Unfortunate Events (TV), A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket
Genre: Based on a Taylor Swift Song, Evermore - Freeform, F/F, Forbidden Love, Gold Rush, Light Angst, Moving On, Pining, Pre-Canon, Sugar Bowl Generation, pining after b together, r and k are head over heels in love with b, spoiler alert they don't end up together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 10:15:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29044473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecryptictaxi/pseuds/thecryptictaxi
Summary: R looked down at the dancing figures below, eyes raking through the room until they found her once again. She was standing by the door now. A smiling Beatrice Baudelaire, with twinkling eyes like sinking ships and plum colored lips she desperately wished to kiss. R clung onto Beatrice’s sterling smile helplessly.What must it be like to grow up that beautiful, she thought to herself.[in which the duchess and kit talk about beatrice at winnipeg's annual winter ball]
Relationships: Beatrice Baudelaire/Kit Snicket, Beatrice Baudelaire/The Duchess of Winnipeg
Series: evermore [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2107644
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	gold rush

The Duchess spotted Kit standing alone on her balcony, with only a champagne glass as company.

R’s eyes scanned the ballroom below for a certain woman. Her name was Beatrice Baudelaire, and she was the prettiest woman in the world. As expected, she was in the middle of the room, surrounded by a crowd of admirers. Smiling softly, R climbed the staircase to the balcony.

“Kit,” R greeted, pressing a kiss against the shorter girl’s cheek.

“R,” Kit said. “The ball is marvelous.”

“Thank you, darling. Now, do tell why you are up here instead of down there, dancing. This is the first time I’ve seen you away from the company of our friends.” 

The Duchess grinned, situating herself onto a chair and putting her legs up on the small table. Even in this position she was elegant and poised, with her opulent dress, pinned up hair, and rhinestone heels. 

“Beatrice.”

“Ah,” R sighed tragically. “Beatrice. Of course.”

R looked down at the dancing figures below, eyes raking through the room until they found her once again. She was standing by the door now. A smiling Beatrice Baudelaire, with twinkling eyes like sinking ships and plum colored lips she desperately wished to kiss. R clung onto Beatrice’s sterling smile helplessly. 

_What must it be like to grow up that beautiful_ , she thought to herself.

“You should have seen her last week at the opera, R. You would have loved it.”

“I wished nothing more than to be there, but the duties of a Duchess are hard and demanding. I’m sure B was extraordinary — as always.”

R looked up at her friend. Kit’s ocean blue eyes reflected her own ashen gray. It was all too familiar. She saw it in the mirror every morning and ever night. A grim look of wanting. Longing. Yearning.

“You should talk to her,” Kit whispered, breaking the silence. “She loves you, you know.”

“She _loved_ me,” the Duchess corrected. “She loves you now. And anyway, I can’t. Winnipeg comes first, myself second. I am already courting someone. You already know this.”

Demetrius. He was a kind man, with warm honey brown eyes and an abundance of riches. He respected her, and was well read on many subjects. She could see a future with him.

Falling for Beatrice made R feel like a bird, soaring through the sky. But eventually, she crash landed. Their love was simply not viable. Demetrius could never match up to Beatrice, of course not. But the Duchess had to settle. She had no other choice.

“You were serious about that? I thought that was a joke!”

“You know I don’t joke, K.”

“But that’s crazy! You don’t love him. You love Beatrice. You can’t possibly spend the entirety of your marriage pining for another woman.”

“A baby will keep me quite occupied, I think,” the Duchess stood up, ignoring Kit’s wide eyes. “I’m expected to marry a royal man, and that’s what I’ll do. For the good of Winnipeg.”

An heir was expected of her, she knew that. A baby girl. She would have gray eyes, of course. Her family was well-known for defying genetics. The royal heir always had gray eyes. And maybe she would even have soft ringlets, like her own. Her eyes softened at the thought, but it also made her uneasy. 

The baby would suffer the same fate as her. A lifetime without true love. Could she possibly bring a child into the world, knowing she must subject her own child to such torment?

“He will never satisfy you. Not like Beatrice can. A baby’s not going to change that.”

“He is sufficient enough. _She_ will be enough.”

“R…”

“I can’t marry B, but you can,” the Duchess said. “Go talk to her, please. Before it’s too late.”

No matter how much she wished otherwise, everybody wanted Beatrice. Everybody wondered what it would be like to love her. And most would die just to feel her touch. If she couldn’t have Beatrice for herself, then Kit was the next best thing.

“You know I can’t, R.” Kit’s voice was cracked and raw.

“You’ve loved her since you were children.”

“So have you.”

Memories flashed in R’s mind. Beatrice laying next to her in the dark. Her dark brown hair falling into place around her shoulders and she put on a diamond necklace. Stargazing together. Getting drunk on expensive French wine. Dancing together in an empty ballroom. It made R shudder. The nostalgia was too much.

“You love her more.” 

It was a lie. R felt selfish, thinking this, but she was convinced that no one loved Beatrice as much as she did. Not even Kit, who loved so wholly and passionately.

“I don’t deserve her,” Kit said, downtrodden. “Beatrice deserves someone better. Someone that can give her stability. A happy life, a house in that coastal town she always talks about, a family… She deserves someone who can turn her life into a fairy tale.

“I’m a fuck up. I’m not a model volunteer or an important member of our organization. I make bad decisions. I literally dated both Olaf and Esmé within a two year time span. I can’t give her the things she wants. I don’t deserve her.”

“She doesn’t want your coastal town houses or children, K. She wants _you_. You do deserve her. More than anyone else. Please, Kit. Go talk to her. If not for yourself, then for me.”

Not staying long enough to hear Kit’s answer, the Duchess lifted herself out of the chair and without looking back, re-entered the ballroom. It _was_ her ball, after all. What a terrible host she would be if she stayed on that balcony all night, talking about an unattainable love. She had people to impress, and conversations to strike.

On her way to converse with Lady Taylor, an old friend of hers, she brushed past Beatrice. 

Their shoulders touched, and an electric tingle shot down her spine. A single brush against Beatrice embraced R like a hug, so warm and inviting that she felt like she was walking in slow motion. Her vision blurred and everything was in double. 

_Keep walking_ , she told herself. _Keep walking. Don't turn around. Don't talk to her. Don’t jump in._

* * *

The Duchess stared into the cup of her day old tea. It was early morning, and she was sitting on the patio all bundled up in a fur coat. She gazed up and caught sight of the flowing rivers. On this day exactly fifteen years ago, she had watched Kit Snicket approach the love of her life at a winter ball. They were both dead now, their love for each other six feet under. R's love for Beatrice, though? Not even a blazing fire or a poisonous fungus could extinguish that.

“Would you like a new cup of tea, darling?”

The Duchess smiled disinterestedly and placed a slender hand on her growing belly.

“That would be lovely, Demetrius, thank you.”

**Author's Note:**

> taylor swift is now canonically a part of the snicketverse because i said so. she is a lady and she's an opera singer and she works with b a lot. she is also in love with b because that's how the snicketverse works.
> 
> thanks for reading my weird little fics


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